The Pyrrhuloxia or Desert Cardinal (Cardinalis sinuatus) is a medium-sized North American song bird

Song Bird

Song Bird is a 1977 album by Deniece Williams. The album went to number 23 and number 66 on the Black and Pop album Charts respectively. The single Baby, Baby My Love's All For You reached number 13 and number 32 on the Black and UK singles....

 found in the American southwest and northern Mexico. This distinctive species with a short, stout bill, red crest and wings, closely resembles the Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

The Northern Cardinal or Redbird or Common Cardinal is a North American bird in the genus Cardinalis. It can be found in southern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas and south through Mexico...

 and the Vermilion Cardinal

Vermilion Cardinal

The Vermilion Cardinal is a species in the cardinal family . It is found in Colombia and Venezuela.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.-References:...

, all of which are in the same genus.
The Desert Cardinal is one of three birds in the genus Cardinalis

Cardinalis

Cardinalis is a genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae. There are three species ranging across North America and into northern South America.* Genus Cardinalis** Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis...

 and is included in the family Cardinalidae, a group of passerine

Passerine

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...

 birds found in North and South America.

Its name of Pyrrhuloxia - once part of its latin name - comes from Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 terms describing its coloration (πυρρος = pyrrhos = reddish or orange) and the shape of its bill (λοξος = loxos = oblique).